Links to photos

I just thought I'd point out to you, if you haven't already noticed, that in the column on the right there are links to photos. You can click on them and look at more photos that I haven't put up on my blog (and perhaps a few that are on the blog too). I recommend looking at the 'Bunabun People' photos.

Christmas and Boxing Day

On Christmas day in the morning I went to someone’s house for breakfast, followed by a break for church and then we returned to the house. There was a group of eight of us. We each had a stocking to open, plus a couple of presents, which was really nice.

At lunchtime I spoke to my family in Australia via the internet. I have now got Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger set up, so we can make phone calls over the internet and even see each other through our webcams.

In the afternoon, I went to another person’s house for a meal. It was a small group of four people. Between eating the main course and dessert we played a detective board game which was fun.

On Boxing Day, a bunch of singles came to the Guest House (ie my place) for a ‘pot luck’ lunch. Twelve people were there altogether. I was full up after eating the main courses, then I still had dessert to squeeze in! But I managed of course!

We played a game as a big group afterwards and someone offered to help me with the dishes, which was much appreciated. I had a good day.

Merry Christmas

I hope you have a great Christmas and thank you for reading my blog. This Christmas will be different for me. Up until yesterday I didn't have any plans, but at the last minute I got some offers. In the morning at 8:30 I will be going to someone's house, then to church at 10am and back to the same house. In the afternoon I am going to another person's house at 2pm.

I have received 2 parcels that I can open tomorrow, but I will have to wait till 29th for the next mail delivery to receive some others that I know have been sent but haven't come yet.

I haven't got any Christmassy pictures from here, so here's a picture of Jyra that I took last year. She must be looking like this just now, missing me at Christmas.

I am a nomad

I have moved house already at Ukarumpa! That is the 5th time I have moved in 5 months! I think that makes me a nomad!

On Friday I moved to the managers’ flat at the Guest House. The Guest House is closed for a month, so there are no guests, and there is also no manager here either. I am just living here to make the place look occupied and thus prevent break-ins.

I am in the Guest House by myself until the 19th of January, when I will move out. I hope to be able to share with someone to keep my expenses down.

The best thing about being in the managers’ flat at the Guest House is having a microwave! I didn’t have a microwave in the previous place and I like to cook a lot of meals at once and then reheat them over the next few days so that I don’t have to cook. Before I had to heat them in the oven, but now that I have a microwave, it is much better!

Village dogs

I had a great time befriending the village dogs and puppies when I was in the village.

Our family had a female dog called ‘Banu’ who had four small puppies. Banu grew to love me – whenever I came down the stairs of the house she would come to me with her tail wagging. One day when I went back and forth to the market several times, Banu came with me wherever I went.

Here is a picture of Banu looking lovingly at me.



Me with Banu. Note the paw on me, she is asking for more pats!



Another dog in the village had two puppies born while we were there. The owners asked me to name the puppies, so I called one ‘Jyra’ and the other one ‘Dolly’.

This is me with Dolly on the left and Jyra on the right.


When we were making the sago someone had brought some puppies along too and I was happy to see and cuddle them. Here is a photo of me with two of them.





It's a hard life being a village dog or puppy. Isn't this just the saddest picture? This is one of Banu's puppies.

Ukarumpa life

I have been at Ukarumpa for a week and a half now. There’s not a lot of exciting news to report from here at the moment, so I will be continuing to share about my time in the village in future posts.

We have had a few days of orientation and I have had several meals at other people’s houses. There is not a lot of work that I can do yet as I am waiting to have a meeting with a supervisor, and also because of the time of year - my department closes from 24 Dec to 2 Jan.

I am staying in a 3 bedroom unit, sharing with another single, but she will be moving out on 30th December. I would like to keep sharing with another person, either in this unit or another one, so that I can keep expenses down. I need to find someone else to share with myself.

Here is the unit I am staying in – my bedroom window is the small one on the left.

Harvesting cocoa

One day when I was in the village, I went out with our family to the garden to harvest cocoa. Cocoa is one of the cash crops in PNG – the people grow it and sell it to businesses who produce things like chocolate from it.

I had a pretty easy job when we harvested the cocoa. Papa took the cocoa pods down from the tree, our sister Rachel cut them open, and then I dug my fingers into them and pulled the beans out and put them in a big bag. It was really easy, but there was a seemingly never-ending supply of cocoa pods, so after several hours, my skin was beginning to get a bit thin. I was thankful when they insisted that I stop and rest. I think I probably did about 40kg worth of beans.

So next time you each chocolate, you can think of me helping to make it!!

Rachel cutting a pod open:

An open cocoa pod ready for me to remove the beans:

The cocoa beans that I removed (half-way through the day – I pretty much filled the bag all the way to the top!).

Some people also dry the cocoa beans in their village. At one village they had some that had been dried and we were able to eat a bean. It tasted bitter, sweet and alcoholic at the same time! I would describe it as tasting like chocolate wine, if there were such a thing.